“If Americans wish to repair their own decayed
democracy, they must
also make themselves into large-minded citizens of the world.”
~~ William Greider

With the recent, turbulent events in Quebec City
surrounding the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), it is clear
that the New World Order, currently under the “leadership” of a
blatantly pro-corporate U.S. president, is aggressively advancing. The
FTAA would be the most comprehensive “free trade” agreement ever
developed. It is an extension of NAFTA (North American Free Trade
Agreement) to most of the Western hemisphere, from Alaska to Argentina,
as it cobbles together aspects of other world trade institutions and
treaties.

The various acronyms of the New World Order –- NAFTA,
FTAA, GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), IMF (International
Monetary Fund), WTO (World Trade Organization), and so on, spell one
basic thing: corporate domination on a global scale. They mean the end
of national sovereignty, the erosion of social services, species
extinction, attacks on workers, war against indigenous peoples, the
unleashing of genetic engineering and agribusiness, biopiracy (the theft
of genetic stock), and the
rape of nature.

The New World Order of global capitalism involves trade
without geographical boundaries or ecological and moral considerations
that are rejected as unfair “restrictions” on “free trade.” The
reorganization of capitalism signals a shift of power from national to
international structures. Since it is difficult enough to influence
local or national governments, it becomes all the more challenging to
control what transpires behind the closed doors of multinational
corporate bodies.

The Gospel of Globalism is presented to us in positive
terms of modernization, liberalization, and enhanced prosperity and
democracy for all. In fact, in these turbulent waters where all boats
are supposed to float, ever more people are starting to drown. The new
global trade treaties are a Trojan horse for greater centralization of
markets on behalf of the dominant world powers, and therefore exacerbate
every existing social and environmental problem. Organizations such as
the WTO and treaties like FTAA are viruses for deregulation,
privatization, and marketization of all social infrastructures and
relationships.

In their wake, the New World Order has brought fewer
jobs and more poverty, environmental ruin, and animal exploitation. It
is common knowledge that in the last few decades the gap between the
rich and poor both nationally and internationally has been widening. By
the 1990s, the richest one percent of Americans owned twice as much as
the poorest 80 percent; the 3 richest people in the U.S. have more money
than the combined GNP of the 48 least developed countries.

The “Battle of Seattle” in December 1999 was a turning
point in oppositional politics. It demonstrated a heightened awareness
that the intricate global trade treaties being fashioned are not
abstract or irrelevant to our lives, but rather are having a huge impact
on people, animals, and the earth. It reflected a new consciousness that
as capitalism globalizes, so too must the struggles against it.
Activists understand, moreover, that these resistances can no longer be
separated. U.S. workers, for example, can best protect their own wages
by helping foreign workers raise their own living standards, and labor
and environmental causes must be interlinked, as “teamsters” and
“turtles” share a common enemy.

And so 50,000 activists from around the world,
representing dozens of different causes, largely mobilized through the
Internet, took to the streets in Seattle, and effectively disrupted the
proceedings aimed at greater world dominance. Such anti-globalization
struggles have been repeated in Washington, Prague, and Quebec.
Everywhere the New World Order tries to solidify its control over life
on this planet, activists are uniting against it. Against media
misrepresentations, the new militancy is not anti-trade (the jobs of
many workers depend on global trade); rather it rejects “free trade”
(the freedom of the rich to further exploit the poor) in favor of fair
trade.

The backbone of the New World Order is the WTO, which
grew out of GATT trade agreements in a 1948 compact among 23 nations.
Currently, the WTO has 135 member nations and is responsible for over 90
percent of world trade. Its goals and responsibilities are to remove all
barriers to global markets, to arbitrate trade disputes, and to create
new international power structures dominated by the strongest nations.
Trade disputes are discussed in Geneva, behind closed doors, by a panel
of 3-5 people stacked with pro-corporate representatives. If they
overrule a country’s law, the offending nation must either change the
law, or suffer stiff fines and trade sanctions.

In most cases, criticisms against the WTO concern its
impact on jobs and the environment, and one rarely hears or reads about
its toll on animals. Yet many animal protection groups consider the WTO
to be the single most dangerous threat to animals. A few examples
illustrate why this fear is justified.

Sea Turtles: The shrimp fishing industry catches sea
turtles in their treacherous nets where they drown, and pushes them to
the brink of extinction. New nets were devised that allowed the turtles
to escape if entangled, and the U.S. refused to import shrimp from any
country not using “turtle exclusion devices.” But upon complaints from 4
Asian nations in 1996, a WTO dispute panel found this policy in
violation of free trade rules, and so the US was forced to accept
imports of shrimp from countries using turtle-killing nets.

“Dolphin-Safe” Tuna: As tuna swim near dolphins, they
are caught by encircling dolphins. The U.S. banned the sale of tuna
snared by chasing and killing dolphins, and established a “dolphin-safe”
tuna label. Mexico challenged this law as an unfair trade barrier, and
the U.S. agreed to changes in the labeling law that allowed tuna caught
by killing dolphins to be fraudulently labeled as “dolphin-free.”

Steel-Jaw Trap Ban: Lest one think the U.S. government
is the “good guy,” it too has challenged trade laws it found to its
economic disadvantage. In fact, the U.S. initiated almost half of the
117 WTO challenges issued between 1995 and 2000. In 1995, for example,
the EU passed legislation against the vicious steel-leg hold trap and
banned the import of fur from nations that used them. The U.S. protested
this to the WTO in 1997, and the WTO forced the EU to weaken and delay
implementation of the ban.

Dozens of progressive laws concerning workers’ safety,
public health, the environment, and animal welfare have been struck down
in this way, rejected as barriers to free trade. The U.S. Clean Air Act
was challenged by the WTO, as was the EU ban on hormones in beef. Not
only are old laws being dismantled, new laws are not being shaped from
fear they won't withstand a WTO challenge. The WTO willfully discounts
the process or means of production of a “commodity,” and so from the
“free trade” standpoint, it is irrelevant whether an animal was raised
on a family or factory farm, whether it was killed “humanely” or was
skinned or dismembered while aware and alive. In the New World Order, no
country can justify a ban on animal imports on the grounds that they
were raised and/or killed in conditions of extreme cruelty. The WTO is
concerned strictly with products, not processes, with economic issues,
not ethical considerations.

The multinationals have declared war on the planet, and
we must fight back and resist. Citizens must understand the new global
realities and create appropriately new political maps and tactics.
Activists must struggle on numerous fronts and form strategic alliances
as often as possible, including across national borders. The humane
treatment of people and animals must remain fundamental rights, and not
be redefined as “barriers to trade.”

With Seattle, a new worldwide social movement has
arisen, one that has demonstrated global corporate power is contestable
and vulnerable. Globalization is irreversible; the question is what form
will it take? Globalization from above, or below? Free trade or fair
trade? Will it satisfy the needs of life or of profit? Only through new
modes of education and organization can people exercise power against
globalization from above and preserve what little is left of human
rights, ecosystems, and biodiversity.

Steve Best is Associate Professor of Philosophy and
Humanities at the University of Texas, El Paso. He is Vice-President of
the Vegetarian Society of El Paso, a long time vegan and animal rights
activist, and author of numerous books and articles in the areas of
social theory, postmodernism, and cultural studies. Some of his writings
are posted at
http://utminers.utep.edu/best/

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